FO Friday -- BAM! POW! Edition

I really did do some knitting this summer, and I actually managed to finish a few projects!  I know, right?  I don't quite believe it either.  I even learned a thing or two along the way.  Bonus!  See, a while back I learned that I really like doing two-handed stranded colorwork.  Then I learned that I really hate doing it on dpns.  It's so fiddly!  And annoying. 

But then, on a field trip to the Loopy Ewe, I found myself an 8"(!) circular needle, and immediately cast on for Fightin' Words.  I've been dying to knit this pattern for ages, but was holding out (see "fiddly" and "annoying", above).  The timing was good too, since I'd just been assigned an awesome partner for a swap on Ravelry and wanted to do something special for her.  I was a little worried about the teensy needle, but it wasn't too hard to handle and it made the colorwork so, so much faster.  I also learned how to catch floats without putting my knitting down, which sped things up considerably.  Really, they were a win all around.

And voila!

I LOVE the way they turned out so much that I was a little sad to send them off.  At least I can take comfort in the fact that they went to such a knit-worthy home.  Unfortunately, since they were gifted I only have the one picture of them, but something tells me there may be another pair of these in my future.  I want some, too! 

That's it for me, since we're heading up to the mountains for a weekend of camping with dogs and friends.

Yay, camping!  But go check out FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday for loads of other inspiring craftiness.  Then go have an amazing weekend, k?

The Wayback Machine

Holy Cannoli, you guys!  It's been a whole stinking summer since I last managed to put together a post.  I'm so sorry for abandoning you!  I hate it when a blog I read disappears for no reason, but it turns out that life gets busy some times, I guess. 

Anyway.  I'm here!  Still happily hitched, and just celebrated our first wedding anniversary.  That was a fast year.  Still knitting.  And since it's Work in Progress Wednesday, I guess we'll start there.  I've got 3 or 4 projects on the needles at the moment, but have 2 that I can actually show off.  First up, I've been not-really-working on a pair of Hermione's Everyday Socks for ages.  Sock 1 is finally nearing the finish line:

I like the pattern, and the yarn is pretty and soft.  Unfortunately, it's also really, really fuzzy and I'm not getting the stitch definition I'd like with this pattern.  But!  There's definitely something to be said for socks that are really pretty and soft, right?  Hopefully sock 2 will show up soon and make quick work of itself.

The other project on the front burner these days is a Heather Hoodie Vest.  I'm still working on the Austin Hoodie, but some time at the beginning of the summer I realized it had been aaaaaaages since I'd knit with anything other than fingering weight yarn.  It became a priority.  So a few weeks ago, I cast on with some of my Stitches West yarn, and it's going pretty quickly when I have a chance to work on it. 

Lest you think I'm a complete slacker, I also finished a couple of projects while I was away, and will have at least one of those to show you on Friday.  Really, I did.

In other news, we spent our summer buying and renovating a rental property.  Crazy, right?  We found a condo for a great price that didn't need much work and yada, yada, yada... yours truly has been up to her eyeballs in paint and drop cloths and light fixtures for the better part of the last 3 months.  It's all finished now, and looks pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.  I'll put together a post of before and after pics in the next week so you can all see where I've been hiding lately.

Finally, the puppy turned 1!  She celebrated her birthday by eating the protective covering off the lawn edging in the back yard and then slicing her foot on it last weekend.  She followed that up by finding a way to chew through her bandage and removing all of her stitches.  But let's not talk about that part.  Sigh.  She's a high maintenance little bugger...

It's a good thing she's so cute.

That's all I've got for the moment.  While the shock of a new post is wearing off, go check out WIPW for lots of crafty goodness that happens on a more regular basis.  See you there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.147

I really did mean to post last week, it's just that well... there was no progress.  How sad is that?  All my projects are at that annoying point where something significant needs to happen to them to get them any farther along.  And sometimes you just want to sit down and knit, ya know?  Anyway, I finally scooted a couple of them along this week, and while it's not much, it is forward motion.  So, yay!

First up, the Austin Hoodie body is finito.  It has to be blocked before the shoulders can be grafted and the sleeves started (see what I mean?), so it finally went into the drink this morning:

I'd actually used a bunch of different contrasting yarns as stitch holders for all the different sections of live stitches, but then I had a tiny panic attack:  What if all this dark yarn bleeds all over my pretty, pretty light colored madtosh?  And so I spent a good half hour pulling out all the contrasting yarn and threading matching yarn into all the different groups of live stitches.  It was pretty much just as riveting as it sounds.  But hopefully, we'll get a sleeve started in the next week and I'll be able to get going on it again for reals.

Next up is my long suffering Peerie Flooers Mitten, which has been in progress since the dark ages.  Just the decreases and the thumb left now, so it's poking along too.  And it's slightly more photogenic than the hoodie in its current state...

It will be a serious miracle if it gets a mate at this rate, but I really would love to wear it at some point, so that's good motivation.  Hopefully, it'll be good enough!

That's all that's in the hopper around here this week.  Go check out Work in Progress Wednesday for all sorts of awesome crafty bits!

FO Friday -- Beret du Swap Edition

Woot!  Two posts in a single week, my friends!  What's up with that?  I honestly have no idea, but I'm hoping it signals the start of a trend.  I'm proud to say that I actually have a finished piece of knitwear to show off, which feels great after working with big projects on tiny needles for sooooooooo long. 

I'm taking part in a swap for one of the Ravelry groups I belong to, and so decided to knit my swappee a fingering weight beret.  I know, right?  Crazy pants.  But I'd been eying this pattern in Coastal Knits for ages, and had the perfect yarn just sitting in my stash not doing anything.  It seemed like fate. 

The pattern is Rustling Leaves, and it's really a joy to knit.  The lace pattern is pretty intuitive for the most part, and it goes quickly.  I really love the way it turned out, so much so that I couldn't resist trying it on. 

It fit me and my wee little head just a smidge too big, so I'm guessing it'll be a good fit for a normal-sized human head.  I gotta say, I'm a little sorry to see it go, but on the upside, I threw the rest of the skein on my trusty yarn scale and I actually have enough left to knit one for me.  I might just do that.

That's all from this little corner of the woods this week.  I'm gonna go dive back into my Ptarmigan cowl so I can have that to show off next week.  This finishing projects business is pretty cool.  Until then, I'll see you over at FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  Happy weekend, y'all!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.144

Huzzah!  The knitting mojo has returned!  Unfortunately, All the Time in the World didn't show up along with it, but beggars can't be choosers, right?  I'm knitting again, and while I wish I had more time to do it, I'm mostly just glad to have needles in my hands again.

I even managed to knit a whole Something, which you'll have to pop in on Friday to get a look at, but it was really nice to finish something and block it, and have it be all cute and *done*.  I got so excited about it, I ran right out and cast on a new project!  I know, right?  I don't know who I am either.  That aside, check out the beginnings of my new Ptarmigan cowl.

I <3 this pattern a bunch.  I saw a shop sample at Fancy Tiger last fall and immediately bought yarn to make it because I really, really wanted to wear it.  But then I didn't knit it.  And it's been sitting in the craft room for aaaaaaaages.  So it's cute.  And fun to knit.  And stashbusting.  Triple threat!  Anyway, the yarn is Rowan Cashsoft DK, which is soft and sturdy, and has great stitch definition.  I'm a fan.  Really, it's a pleasure to knit.

I'm also still poking along on the Austin Hoodie.

Nearly finished with the body now, then it gets blocked, the shoulders get grafted together and I get to start on the arms.  Hopefully, all those steps will happen this week.

In other news, well...  I'm not sure there is other news.  It's mostly baby-trying and fertility stuff these days, and I'm on the fence about whether this blog is a good place to go into detail about all that.  Is it over-sharing?  Would it be helpful or interesting to anybody?  Feel free to let me know what you think on the subject.  And then go check out all the other WIPW entries.  I'm ridiculously behind on reading them myself, but there's always awesome stuff going on over there.

See you Friday!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.141

Hi again!  I promise I'm trying to get back here more regularly, but with everything that happened I seem to have misplaced my knitting mojo, resulting in not much to post about.  But, But! It looks like it's finally starting to resurface.  And so I have a tiny bit of P to report to all you WIPW peeps.  The Austin Hoodie continues.  It really is taking forever to knit, through no fault of its own.  It skips right along whenever I manage to pick it up, it's just the picking part that's been slow.

 Anyway, the back and right front are finished.  Left front is underway.  Then it's just two sleeves and a hood, and we're golden!  I'm loving knitting this sweater, and loving the yarn too.  It's knitting up into a lovely fabric. 

In other news, I got a job!  It's just a wee little one, but it's fun.  I'm officially the Assistant at Sunrise Fiber Co. !  How is cool is that?  Wren dyes absolutely gorgeous yarn, which she sells on etsy, and in a few yarn stores.  These are my current favorites:

First, Fig (which is a little darker and more mysterious than it looks on my screen):

And also Chamomile in the sparkle lace base:

She's also got a facebook page and a Ravelry group where she quite often announces great deals on her pretty stuff.  Not that I'm biased or anything, but go check it out.  If you buy yourself a skein there's a good chance that it's been wound by little old me.  And I'd like to apologize in advance.  I'm getting better, really.  But man, making a perfectly twisted skein is hard.

That's what's been keeping me busy around these parts.  I'm feeling the itch to cast on something shiny and new (just to break things up a bit), so come back next week and see if I've managed to hang onto my sweater monogamy or not.  I know!  The suspense is killing me, too.  To keep yourself busy between now and then, go check out all the pretty pretties over at Work in Progress Wednesday.  I'll see you there!

FO Friday -- Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Oh guys, I'm so sorry.  I totally fell off the face of the earth this month, and I apologize.  I did have some pretty good reasons, though...

Right before Stitches West, we found out that I was pregnant.  Right after I got back, we had an ultrasound that showed things were probably okay.  A week later, we had another that showed things were probably not okay.  A few days after that, Mr. Right had an accident at work that landed him in the hospital with a severed Achilles tendon. He had surgery to repair it, and is home and recovering.  While all this was happening, we found out that things were definitely not okay with the pregnancy.  Last week, we had a miscarriage.  It's okay.  Without going into too much detail, we got some encouraging news and we're hopeful.  We're both okay, just really trying to climb out of the last month's stuff. 

Anyway, when last we spoke, I was holding a contest to share part of my Stitches bounty, two skeins of gorgeous Alpenglow yarn. 

Thanks so much for all the comments and entries!  Man, I love having giveaways.  I especially like typing the numbers into the Random Number Generator.  Here's what it kicked out this time...

A quick perusal of the comments reveals that comment #11 was left by Cathy at Cat's Tale, all the way in Melbourne, Australia!  Big congratulations to you, Cathy!  I'll be mailing it this weekend, though there's really no telling how long the trip from Colorado to Australia will take.  I'm curious to see!

Anyway, things are beginning to return to normal around here, so you can expect to see me popping up more regularly again.  With knitting, even!  The mind boggles.  Until then, have a lovely weekend and go check out FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday for lots more yarniness.